This invention relates to golf clubs, and more particularly to a golf club having a neck portion or "hosel" that has selected portions of the hosel outer wall material removed, resulting in a plurality of depressions formed in the hosel wall.
In the prior art of golf clubs (either "woods" or "irons"), it is known to form a clubhead with an integral hosel portion. The hosel has a bore hole formed internal to the hosel material. The bore hole may be formed through the entire length of the hosel (i.e., a "throughbore"), or may be formed through only a portion of the hosel (i.e., a "blind bore"). The hosel is formed at an angle with respect to the bottom, or "sole", of the clubhead. This angle is referred to as the "lie" angle of the club. The bore hole in the hosel is operable to receive an end of the shaft of the golf club. The shaft is secured to the clubhead within the hosel by one or more of a number of means, including pins and/or adhesives. It is critical that the means employed in securing the shaft to the clubhead within the hosel be of high integrity so as to withstand relatively large torsional strains placed thereon due to the impact of the clubhead with the gold ball.
In the early part of the 20th century, golf clubs are constructed with heads and wooden shafts. The wooden shafts were secured within bores in the hosels of the clubheads by means of adhesives, and often times reinforced by one or more transverse pins. Relative to modern-day hosels, these early hosels where much longer and had a much larger outside diameter. Holes were drilled clear through the hosel material to facilitate placement of the pins through the entire diameter of the wooden shaft. Further, slots or holes were formed clear through the hosel material. It was discovered that the wood shaft would swell over time into the slots, thereby helping to secure the shaft to the hosel. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,266,529 to Mattern.
However, problems with this type of shaft-to-clubhead connection included the fact that the holes in the hosel allowed the adhesive to seep out of the hosel, and further allowed moisture to get into the wood of the shaft, thereby degrading the integrity of the connection. Also, the wooden shaft tended to dry out and shrink in warmer temperatures, creating a loose fit of the shaft within the hosel. The loose fit permitted a large amount of torsional forces at impact of the clubhead with the ball to be absorbed by the pin. Over time, this caused cracks in the shaft.
Later, when metal shafts were developed, it was still known to "pin" the shaft to the hosel. It was further known to form slots clear through the hosel material to provide resiliency to the aforementioned torsional force at impact of the clubhead with the golf ball. The slots were formed on the hosel below the point where the pin was located. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,892,482 to Cash, Jr. As taught in this patent, the shaft was not fixedly attached to the hosel below the point where the pin was attached. Thus, the shaft was allowed to swivel to a limited extent with respect to the hosel. However, in such a connection, the pin absorbed the major portion of the torsional force at impact of the clubhead with the ball.
The United States Golf Association ("USGA") is golf's governing body in the United States. The USGA has strict and "rigid" rules that specify, inter alia, the physical characteristics of a golf club. Included among the rules is one that specifies that the mass or weight of the club must remain constant during the round of golf. Thus, a golfer cannot just "blindly" add mass or weight to the clubhead during play in an effort, for example, to increase the moment of inertia to thereby reduce the effects of "off center" shots. Instead, the club designer must recognize the location, within the clubhead, of unnecessary or undesirable mass or weight that may be available for repositioning in a more useful area of the clubhead. It has long been recognized that the hosel adds unnecessary and undesirable weight to the clubhead. This is why modern clubheads have hosels that are relatively smaller in outside diameter and shorter in length, as compared to the prior art.
Alternatively, it is known in the modern art to design a clubhead with no hosel whatsoever. This is true for clubs of the "metal wood" type. The no-hosel design entirely removes the weight of the hosel and allows the weight to instead be placed in the clubhead, where it is more desirable and beneficial.
The no-hosel design is not without its drawbacks, however. Firstly, eliminating the hosel largely reduces the amount of area available inside the clubhead for bonding to the outside of the shaft. This causes problems over time due to the aforementioned torsional strain placed on the interface of the clubhead with the shaft. In the no-hosel design, this large amount of torsional strain is distributed along a much smaller amount of the tip of the shaft. Such large amount of strain may exceed the strength of materials used on some composite shafts.
Another problem with the no-hosel design lies in the fact that a different sensation, or "feel", is experienced by the golfer when the club is swung. In other words, the golfer tends to perceive that the balance of the club is "off" (i.e., is much different then what the golfer is accustomed to using with a traditional clubhead having a hosel).
A further problem with the no-hosel design is that the clubshaft has lost some of its normal "kick" or spring. This is because the shaft designers attempt to build up the walls of the shaft, or they insert other materials in the tip of the shaft to protect the shaft from breaking off at the clubhead.
In light of the foregoing, it is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide a golf clubhead with a hosel having an internal bore hole for receiving an end of a shaft, and having selected portions of the hosel wall material surrounding the bore hole removed to reduce the weight of the hosel.
It is a general object of the present invention to simultaneously reduce the weight of a hosel and redistribute the weight to the remainder of the clubhead where it is more beneficial.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a reduced weight hosel with ample inner surface material to allow for proper adherence of the shaft within the hosel, thus allowing for proper and adequate support of the shaft within the hosel.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a hosel that allows a golf club manufacturer to use a normal golf club shaft that does not require the clubhead end of the shaft to be reinforced before the shaft is inserted into the hosel.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a hosel that provides for proper "feel" and "balance" of the golf club to a golfer as the club is swung.
The above and other objects and advantages of this invention will become more readily apparent when the following description is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.